Too many people are dying while waiting for a transplant, and continued structural governmental reforms could lead to significant increases in organs available for transplant, Seth Karp, MD, chair of the Section of Surgical Sciences, testified before a U.S. Senate committee Dec. 11.
More than 100,000 people in the United States are waiting for an organ transplant, and about 13 people die each day waiting. Karp, H. William Scott Jr. Professor of Surgery and a liver transplant surgeon who spent 11 years as director of the Vanderbilt Transplant Center, told senators: “Time is often a matter of life and death, and in transplantation, time matters in the work that you are doing.”
Karp’s remarks built on his previous testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2021 and 2024, in which he advocated for quicker implementation of then-new rules by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services requiring organ procurement organizations to meet stricter performance standards by 2026.
“Congressional efforts on organ transplantation through legislation and oversight have begun to save lives, but important work remains,” Karp told the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions during the one-hour hearing.
